Victoria Urbano Papers

The collection is comprised of the personal papers of Costa Rican author, poet, and university professor Victoria E. Urbano. Materials date from 1940 to 1986 and measure 17.5 linear feet. The collection is arranged into eight series: Personal and Biographical, Employment, Correspondence, Conferences and Speaking Engagements, Written Works, Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica, Audiovisual Materials, and Oversize Materials.

The first series, Personal and Biographical, is divided into seven subseries and consists of material types such as clippings, programs, notes, interviews, correspondence, printed materials, and photographs. There are items relating to Urbano's education from primary school through university studies. Also included are awards and honors she had received throughout her career, perhaps the most well-known being the Premio Internacional León Felipe of Mexico. In addition, this series contains entries about Urbano from biographical directories, publicity items about her, and varied collected materials. Finally, there are posthumous materials collected about her death in 1984 as well as scrapbooks Urbano had compiled of various items from throughout her life.

Series two, Employment, includes a few materials relating Urbano's job at Connell Bros. Company in San Francisco. However, the bulk of this series is made up of her files from the many years she was a professor at Lamar University. These materials consist of letters and memos from university faculty, staff, and students, as well as printed materials, forms, research notes, clippings, lesson plans, and other items relating to Urbano's courses, committees, and projects.

Correspondence, the third series, contains letters to and from various organizations, publications, and presses, as well as faculty at numerous universities. It is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or the entity which he or she represents.

The fourth series, Conferences and Speaking Engagements, is comprised of clippings, written speeches, photographs, and printed materials from and about various events at which Urbano gave talks, presented papers, or participated in some way. The items in this series are arranged alphabetically, usually by the name of the organization hosting each event.

Series five, Written Works, includes drafts, printed articles, correspondence, clippings, and several published monographs. Various types of literature written by Urbano throughout her career exist in this series along with publicity and critiques of these works. Written Works is divided into different subseries by literary format, including: Articles, Poetry and Prose, Short Shories, Travel Impressions, and Monographs. Each subseries in arranged alpahabetically by title or subject of the work.

The sixth series contains the records of the professional organization Victoria Urbano founded in 1974 and directed until her death in 1984. The Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica materials include newsletters and other printed materials, clippings, programs, forms, and letters. The organization's records are divided into the following subseries: Administrative, Financial, Publications, Meetings, and Correspondence/Member Files. The Correspondence/Member Files are the bulk of the series and are arranged alphabetically by member name.

The Audiovisual Materials in series seven include audiotapes and audiocassettes of Urbano reciting poetry and giving readings of her works, as well as presentations and acceptance speeches. There is also an analog video recording relating to her winning the Premio León Felipe in 1969.

Finally, the eighth series houses Oversize Materials. It consists of items that were separated from their original series because of size. These materials inlcude four issues of RITMO, the newspaper Urbano started as a student at the Colegio Superior de Señoritas in San José, articles from the Mexican magazine Impacto about her winning the Premio León Felipe, and a newspaper supplement to La Prensa Libre with travel information about the Costa Rican volcano El Irazu. There is also an issue of the magazine Mujeres that contains an article about Mexican journalist Helia D'Acosta. Finally, this series houses an issue of the newspaper La Gaceta separated from Urbano's file on Vice-Consul of Costa Rica and an oversize scrapbook separated from the other scrapbooks in series one.